My wife and I raised our boys in San Jose CA. I say that with significant regret. I think I should have picked somewhere else due to the incessant property crime there.
We were immediately attracted to a middle-class neighborhood in North Valley when my wife and I started looking for our first home in 1977. After we moved into a smallish 3 bed 2 bath home the San Jose version of Welcome Wagon greeted us in less than a month ... while we were sleeping a man broke into our home via the garage, apparently with burglary on his mind. Thankfully the police showed up quickly and he left through the back yard over the fence. It could have ended badly because he dropped an axe by the back fence that I had used to chop wood in the garage the previous evening. We should have taken a lesson from that but we hoped it was an anomalous event in an otherwise peaceful and reasonably crime-free neighborhood. We were wrong. Man, were we wrong!
Over the years living in two different houses in that area of town we experienced a property crime about every two years which included: the aforementioned attempted home invasion burglary, another attempted burglary, three car break-ins (various stereos and musical equipment stolen), bike stolen from the garage, motorcycle stolen from driveway, the grill removed from one of our cars, stolen camera, two stolen wallets, and a hit and run car accident. I think I've missed a couple of crimes but you get the idea.
We bade good riddance to San Jose when we retired and moved to Oregon two years ago. We were happy to leave the crime behind us. However, one of our sons still lives there and we just heard his motorcycle was stolen (2nd time!) from his carport yesterday (in a complex that claims to have good security). So, our family's record of experiencing a property crime about every two years in San Jose continues unabated.
Why anyone would want to live in San Jose CA is a mystery to me.
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